Author: Piers Torday

Piers Torday is an award winning and best selling writer for children, whose work has been translated into 14 languages and adapted for the stage. Books include The Last Wild trilogy (Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize), There May Be a Castle and The Lost Magician series (Teach Primary Book Award). Plays include The Box of Delights and Christmas Carol (Wilton’s Music Hall). He co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists Over 60 and has been a judge for the Guardian Prize, the British Book Awards and the Costa Book Awards. His latest book is The Wild Before.

Wild About Writing Tip 3: Exciting Events

Posted on August 31, 2020 by - Awards, Writing Tips

Writing competition
This week my writing tip is on how to fill your story with EXCITING EVENTS, that keep the reader turning the page…

These tips are for anyone entering my #WildaboutWriting creative writing competition which I’m bringing to you in partnership with Blackwell’s Bookshop and Hachette Children’s Group.
It’s open to 7-12 year olds and the first prize is £500 worth of books for the winning child’s school or public library. The winner will also receive a virtual visit to the school by me (as well as a selection of his books), a printed version of the wining story with a designed cover, and an invitation to a virtual prize-giving ceremony. 19 runners-up will receive a signed copy of ‘The Last Wild’ and a £10 Blackwell’s Gift Card.
Just take a look at the story starter paragraph introduced in this video from me, and then write a fictional short story of no more than 1,000 words. Submit your entry by 13th September 2020.
Happy writing and good luck!
For full details of this competition, please visit the competition website: www.hachettechildrens.co.uk/wildaboutwriting
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Winner of National Writing Day Challenge announced

Posted on August 30, 2020 by - Writing Tips

Thank you for all your brilliant story entries for my National Writing Day challenge!

It was very hard to choose a winner, but one story stood out, for its super creative response to the brief, and that was by Oliver Klumpler, who receives a full set of signed books AND £100 Book Token.

Congratulations Oli!

In the meantime, it’s still not too late to enter my Wild About Writing competition, details here:

www.hachettechildrens.co.uk/wildaboutwriting

 

Wild About Writing Tip 2: Creating Cool Characters

Posted on August 21, 2020 by - Writing Tips

Writing competition

It’s Week 2 of my #WildAboutWriting competition with Blackwell’s and Hachette Children’s. Here’s my second writing tip for every 7-12 year old trying to win £500 of books for their school library. Today I’m giving some advice on how to create Cool Characters – that spring to life on the page, keep you reading and linger in the memory after you’ve finished..

Wild About Writing Tip 1: WILD IMAGINATION

Posted on August 13, 2020 by - Awards, Schools, Writing Tips

Writing competition

Each week of my #Wildaboutwriting competition with Blackwell’s Bookshop and Hachette Children’s I’m going to be sharing a different creative writing tip. This week, how to let your imagination really run wild!

Do you know a budding writer? I’ve teamed up with Blackwell’s to invite children aged 7 – 12 years across the UK to get creative in a new summer writing competition. The young entrants will need to write a story of up to 1,000 words using the following line from me to get them started: “It was midnight, and far beyond my window, a wolf in the darkness was calling my name …” This is their opportunity to show off their creativity and be in with a chance to win £500 worth of books for their school library along with a school event with Piers Torday, a £50 Blackwell’s voucher, signed copies of Piers Torday’s books and a small number of exclusive printed copies of their very own story for their personal enjoyment. This competition is only available to those in the UK and Republic of Ireland. All entries must be submitted before midnight on Sunday 13th September 2020. ENTER HERE: bit.ly/3ii4Bdz

Wild new writing competition!

Posted on August 5, 2020 by - Awards, Writing Tips

Writing competition

It has been a strange old few months for many of us, but what has kept me going, and kept me so inspired, has been all the amazing creative writing by children.

Research by the National Literacy Trust has revealed that lockdown gave many children more time and space to write, and that nearly 40% of you were writing more often and enjoying it more. That’s a lot of stories!

I’ve also been blown away by the hundreds of responses I have had to my story starters, and so to celebrate your wonderful creativity, I’ve created an extra special summer holiday creative challenge for you all.

Writing competition

My publisher, Hachette Children’s Group, and I are delighted to have teamed up with Blackwell’s bookseller to invite children across the UK and Ireland to get creative in this special summer writing competition for 7-12 year olds.

We would like our young writers to write up to 1,000 words using the following line to get them started…

 

…they can then take the tale wherever their imagination chooses.

This is their chance to show off their creativity and be in with a chance to win £500 worth of books for their school library along with an exclusive printed copy of their winning story, with a specially designed cover. The prize also includes a school event from me (either virtually or in person, when circumstances allow) and a £50 Blackwell’s voucher. Also 19 runners up will each receive a £10 Blackwell’s voucher and a signed copy of The Last Wild.

The competition is open to residents of the UK and Republic of Ireland, from 5th August to 13th September 2020.

I’m so looking forward to reading everyone’s entries.

Good Luck!

Here is a little video from me introducing the competition and for more information on the terms and conditions and how to enter, please

CLICK HERE

UPDATE: This competition is now closed to submissions. We are reading the entries, and the winner will be announced early in October. Watch this space!

National Writing Day Challenge

Posted on June 25, 2020 by - Short Stories, Writing Tips

For #NationalWritingDay here is a mini story competition!

Send your children’s responses to story@pierstorday.co.uk
The best one wins set of my books signed + £100 book token!
Maximum 2 sides A4, please send as typed Word documents if possible.
Competition closes 24/07/20, winner announced 30/08/20, the judges decision is final.

Paul Torday Prize Shortlist 2020 announced

Posted on May 21, 2020 by - Awards

​The Paul Torday Memorial Prize is awarded to a first novel by a writer over 60. The prize includes a set of the collected works of British writer Paul Torday (my father), who published his first novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen at the age of 60. Judged this year by William Fiennes, Catherine Johnson and Sarah Waters.

  • The Burning Land by George Alagiah
  • Madeleine by Euan Cameron
  • Reparation by Gaby Koppel
  • Find Me Falling by Fiona Vigo Marshall
  • As the Women Lay Dreaming by Donald S Murray
  • The Stranger She Knew by Rosalind Stopps​

Paul Torday Memorial Prize Judge Sarah Waters says: “There’s a great range of novels on this exciting shortlist: some have the pace and punch of thrillers and detective stories, others have the lyricism of poetry or the disconcerting shimmer of dream and nightmare. What they all have in common, however, is an interest in tackling some of the big issues of our time -– issues like injustice and reparation, trauma and recovery. They are powerful books by really talented authors.”

The inaugural Paul Torday Memorial Prize was awarded to Anne Youngson for Meet Me at the Museum in 2019. Total prize fund: £1,000.

Ideas to entertain lockdown children from Katherine Rundell!

Posted on April 28, 2020 by - Books, Campaigns

Ideas to entertain lockdown children

Here are some brilliant ideas to entertain lockdown children.

Award-winning children’s author, Katherine Rundell, has edited The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown , which is completely free for all children and families.  The extraordinary collection includes short stories, poems, essays and pictures from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon, Jacqueline Wilson – and Katherine herself.

I’m delighted to have contributed small essay about the beauty of hares in amongst such treasures.

The Book of Hopes aims to comfort, inspire and encourage children during lockdown through delight, new ideas, ridiculous jokes and heroic tales. There are true accounts of cats and hares and plastic-devouring caterpillars; there are doodles and flowers; revolting poems and beautiful poems; and there are stories of space travel and new shoes and dragons.

The collection is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone currently working in hospitals. Bloomsbury intends to publish a gift book based on the project to be published in the autumn in support of NHS Charities Together.

“A few weeks ago, I began a Hope Project; I emailed some of the children’s writers and artists whose work I love most. I asked them to write something very short, fiction or non-fiction, or draw something that would make the children reading it feel like possibility-ists: something that would make them laugh or wonder or snort or smile. The response was magnificent, which shouldn’t have surprised me, because children’s writers and illustrators are professional hunters of hope. I hope that the imagination can be a place of shelter for children in the hard months ahead and that The Book of Hopes might be useful in that, even if only a little.”

Katherine Rundell

Write At Home 2

Posted on March 25, 2020 by - Schools, Writing Tips

Are the children eating the furniture?
 
Are you getting no work done whatsoever?
 
Is Joe Wicks reducing you to a gibbering wreck?
 
QUICK! A ten minute creative writing reprieve, just long enough to check the emails at least…
 
The second of my occasional #StoryStarters for primary age children at home.
 
#UnitedByBooks
#WriteAtHome